Island Cruising and Down Under Rally are excited to announce the commencement of the much-anticipated Pacific Rally 2024.

This year’s rally marks a significant milestone, with over 100 boats registered from all over the Pacific to participate in the annual sailing event – the biggest number yet.

“We are thrilled to have such an incredible turnout of the rally this season,” said rally director Viki Moore.

The entire Pacific Rally fleet comprises mid-size sailing vessels and power boats from Australia, New Zealand and international cruisers worldwide. The smallest vessel is 10m and the largest is a 32m superyacht.

Over the last few weeks, the rally has hosted the pre-departure activities at the Bay of Islands Marina in Opua and last week at the Boat Works on the Gold Coast.

“We have been so warmly welcomed by all the marine businesses in the precincts and the rally participants have been really impressed with the facilities and hospitality on offer,” Moore said.

The rally enables people with their own boats to blend adventure with safety and camaraderie with independence, fostering a sense of community among the participants while empowering them to explore the Islands of Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia. They can choose to sail independently or join in with the events that are held along the way. At the end of the season, they can choose to return to New Zealand, Australia, stay in the tropics or continue their adventures further north to Asia.

Rally participants have had extensive online pre-departure training in the months leading up to the departure as well as practical offshore medic and sea survival courses, seminars on weather, documentation, navigation and passage planning and social events and briefings with our rally partner businesses to meet the rest of the fleet.

The yachts leaving from Opua today will be sailing to either Tonga or Fiji and the passage will take them around a week to complete. The second group is departing from the Gold Coast, bound for New Caledonia.

“The rally is flexible and there are other vessels departing from different ports and at later dates,” explained Moore.

“This allows people to sail to their own schedule but still stay connected with others heading in the same direction.

“The rally is not just about sailing; it’s about forging lifelong friendships, experiencing diverse cultures and embracing the spirit of adventure. We encourage our rally participants to be mindful and respectful of the local people, culture and environment on our travels. We also love to support various community-based projects with our partners such as Days For Girls, Sea Mercy, Rotary, and this year we are very excited to be partnering with Citizens of the Sea. Many of the vessels on the rally will be helping collect eDNA samples and mapping the seabed to enable scientists to better understand our oceans”.

The Pacific Rally participants will be away in the Islands until November this year.

The rally progress can be tracked here.